The insides of a car engine get very hot when the engine is running. Motor oil lubricates the moving parts, to keep the engine operating smoothly. What happens to motor oil as the engine temperature goes up?
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MatlSci_p019

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Time Required

Short (2-5 days)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Readily available

Cost

Very Low (under $20)

Safety

Adult supervision required. Use caution when heating oil in the water bath, and when handling hot containers.

If you'd like to investigate the physics of amusement park rides, then this project is for you. You'll build a roller coaster track for marbles using foam pipe insulation and masking tape, and see how much the marble's potential energy at the beginning of the track is converted to kinetic energy at various points along the track.
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Have you ever dropped something and wondered how fast it was moving while falling? If it was something fragile, like a cell phone, you might not have been thinking about this at the time — you may have been too busy trying to grab the phone! But you probably wanted to find out just how hard it hit the ground afterwards. We know that gravity forces an object to fall, but how does this affect how quickly something falls and how hard it hits the ground? For example, did the phone move faster…
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Big, puffy, cotton-like clouds, and the bubbles in a pot of boiling water may not seem like they have much in common, but they do—both are formed by a heat-transfer process called convection. Warmed gases and liquids rise, while cooler ones fall, creating currents and mixing things up. Whether making processed foods in a factory or making plastic or metal parts, knowing how to mix up a big tank of hot and cold liquids or gases quickly is important. Engineers must rely on experimentation…
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Do you like to watch the Olympics and see a new world record get set? Have you ever wondered how fast you'd need to go to achieve that world record? Well, in this sports science fair project, you'll find out how to compute speeds needed to achieve world records. Not only that, but you'll learn what speed is, and how to measure it in almost anything that moves! So head for the track, you're on a search for speed!
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Sports_p048

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Time Required

Long (2-4 weeks)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Readily available

Cost

Very Low (under $20)

Safety

Safety gear should always be worn when participating in sports. Choose a safe location at which to run your speed tests.

How do you feel when you ride your bike into a strong wind? Do your legs feel like lead? How about when the wind is at your back? Does that make you feel ready for the Tour de France? In this science fair project, you will investigate how wind-powered devices, like pinwheels, also react in different ways to the direction of the wind.
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Forget drinking your juice. Instead, try snacking on it! Use the steps and recipes in this food science project to transform drinks into semi-solid balls that pop in your mouth. The technique is called spherification and it is part of a larger food science trend called molecular gastronomy— but we just call it yummy science!
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The movement of satellites is intriguing, but how do they orbit the way they do? Aerospace engineers run calculations and set up computer models to help them predict how satellites move in space, but in this astronomy science project, you will create a physical model with marbles, clay, and a cookie sheet to help you study how satellites move in space and learn from your observations.
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Have you ever had a cut or a bloody nose that seemed like it would bleed forever? Though it might have seemed like a long time, it probably did stop pretty quickly. This is because different factors in a person's blood normally work together to plug the opening caused by the cut in a process called blood clotting or coagulation. However, some people have a genetic disorder called hemophilia that causes them to bleed excessively. If a person has hemophilia, he or she is usually missing some of…
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HumBio_p037

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Time Required

Short (2-5 days)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Specific chemicals (sodium citrate, sodium alginate, and calcium chloride) are needed. A kit containing these chemicals is available from the Science Buddies Store. See the Materials tab for details.

Cost

Low ($20 - $50)

Safety

Adult supervision may be needed for using a blender. All chemicals in this science project are safe to use (they are common food additives).

This science project presents an interesting puzzle. A disk of wood will float face-up; that is, with its circular cross-section parallel to the surface of the water. A long log of wood, however, floats on its side with the circular cross-section perpendicular to the surface of the water. If you think about it, disks and logs are both cylinders. Is there some intermediate length of cylinder that floats with the circular cross-section at a tilted angle? Try this experiment to find out!
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Aero_p021

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- Less Details

Time Required

Short (2-5 days)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Readily available

Cost

Low ($20 - $50)

Safety

Adult supervision is recommended when using the wood saw. Always wear safety goggles when working with tools.

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